I just got out of sunken temple where we didnt finish in time. The reason was that we had 1 dps who was heavily undergeared, and we wiped on the first boss multiple times. By the time we downed the first boss, we had about 25 minutes left on the timer. So, I chain pulled while explaining fights and skipped chests. we ran out of time when the final boss had literally less than 1cm of health left. I didn't even get to say goodbye to people that, by the end of the dungeon, felt like were my guildies.

It seems to me that the time limit doesnt really serve any gameplay purpose. Most of the time, it can be ignored. The only time when it actually matters is when there is a person who is very new to mmorpgs, and other 3 players need to help him/her. In other words, it is a mechanic that can be largely ignored, and punishes us for trying to be very patient in helping new players get used to the game/genre.

Can someone enlighten me on why this mechanic exists?